Guest is God....

OFF-TRACK

Amitabh Shukla

The Nepalese Capital Kathmandu might have witnessed a decline of tourists due to the Maoist threat but its inhabitants have not lost their innate sense of treating the guests as 'gods". Atithi devo bhava (guests are like god) – explained a young Nepalese and his mother who bestowed largesse on me during a visit some months ago.

I took a local bus to visit Nagarkot, some 20 kms from Kathmandu, to see the countryside in leisure. My wife was initially skeptic but enthusiastically joined me in exploring the city's outskirts. After reaching the little tourist paradise of Nagarkot, we found that there were no tourists at all. We were the only two people who had come to the place for sightseeing. The rest of the people in the bus were either the inhabitants of the place or were employees of a couple of hotels there.

Both of us started roaming around aimlessly. We walked for a couple of kms and then realised that it was time one called it a day and returned to the safe surroundings of Kathmandu. I had an urge to have a cup of tea or coffee. Suddenly I saw a diminutive lady, around 50 years of age, carrying a huge basket on her back. Having seen the photographs of ladies plucking tea from the tea gardens in Assam and Darjeeling, we thought that the lady was plucking the tealeaves from some nearby garden. I asked her whether she was plucking the tealeaves. She could not perhaps understand Hindi.

Soon she asked us to follow her. We thought she would lead us to the tea estate. Instead, she took us to her house on top of a small hillock. She summoned her son and asked him to bring two chairs. We were soon sitting facing a deep picturesque valley – clouds on the face and quite cold for the afternoon. Still unsure, we did not know what was in store for two of us. After a few minutes, tea was brought in steel tumblers. Hot and steaming, tea tasted like a nectar in the upper reaches of the Himalayas. The lady perhaps thought that we needed tea and therefore asked her about it.

Her son later informed that his mother was hard on hearing and could not understand Hindi properly. He explained in broken Hindi that tourists have practically abandoned the place and very few people came there. When we offered him money, the 20 something Nepalese folded his hands and said, "Atithi devo bhava". Perhaps the only Sanskrit he had learnt in the only Hindu country of the world.

We could not offend him by forcing him to accept money. I just gave him my Delhi address and told him that if he ever visited the city, he was welcome to be my guest. I haven't heard from him since then nor did I ever had the opportunity to visit his little paradise at Nagarkot.

There was little more of "Atithi devo bhava" at our next destination – Pokhra. We arrived at the popular tourist destination on a day when there was a drizzle throughout the 6- hour bus journey from Kathmandu. The moment, the bus arrived at the designated place, at least 20 salesmen from different hotels swarmed on us and wanted to take us to their hotels. One of them managed to snatch our suitcase and put it in his taxi. When we reached his hotel, I found it to be a nice cozy place near the famous lake. When the hotel manager disclosed the per day room charges, it was simply unbelievable. The rates were so low that even a well earning beggar from a city like Delhi could have enjoyed the luxury of this hotel with warm running water, a spacious double room and room service.

"You are the first guest in a week," said the manager of the hotel. None of the 25 rooms in the hotels were occupied. We stayed in the hotel for three days. Two of the waiters were constantly sitting on the bench near our room for any request or room service. We were indeed made to feel that guests are God. While checking out of the hotel on the third day, the slogan behind the cashier's back caught my attention – "Atithi devo bhava".

(February 2011)